5 Signs Humans Are Still Evolving

Homo sapiens is not a finished product. In fact, there is evidence that modern humans are evolving faster than ever before, as mutations and natural selection continue to change us. How so? For one thing, we drink milk.

Historically, the gene that regulated a human’s ability to digest lactose shut down as they were weaned off of their mother’s breast milk. But when we began domesticating cows, sheep and goats, being able to drink milk became a nutritionally advantageous quality, and people with the genetic mutation that allowed them to digest lactose were better able to propagate their genes.

A 2006 study suggests this tolerance for lactose was still developing as early as 3,000 years ago in East Africa. That genetic mutation for digesting milk is now carried by more than 95 percent of Northern European descendants.

Read about the other changes in humans over time at mental_floss. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Lucas Leite)

How does one know that it is a mutation versus genetic adaptation ie., the genetic code is already present? It is impossible to tell unless 2 separate species arise. It is like saying that the reason that Americans are typically bigger and taller today is either by evolution or better nutrition ei., adaptation. In the case of the Andean people, if moved to a lower elevation, they would simply revert back to normal lung capacity. I wouldn't call this a mutation or evolution. It's not like they evolved and then evolved back, their bodies adapted. It's just like blind cave salamanders when raised in non-cave conditions became normal salamanders.

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@halieus: You seem to be confusing evolution with speciation. Evolution is what allows the adaptation/variation you're talking about to happen.
Also, it doesn't happen in individuals, so feeding your cat milk is only going to give it diarrhea.

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Evolved greater lung capacity. LOL. That's only adaptation/variation. They didn't become a separate specie. So far every human is capable of reproducing with every other human, just like every variety of dog. Plus, if I feed my cat milk after it was weened is it also evolving into a lactose tolerant animal?

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They missed a couple of good ones. There are people in the Andes that have evolved a greater lung capacity to deal with thinner air, and there are people in Tibet that have higher red blood cell counts that solve the same problem a different way. Dark skin is an advantage in sunny climates to protect from sunburn and skin cancer. Pale skin is an advantage in less-sunny climates (it absorbs more ultraviolet sunlight to make vitamin D).

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